Sander Berndsen Leads EPT Berlin After Day1B

Unexpectedly the second starting day of EPT Berlin was larger than Day 1a with 458 runners signing up and playing in the event. By the end of the day’s play, Sander Berndsen emerged as the chip leader. The Dutch pro managed to win several key pots against Jens Kyllönen.

One of the most interesting hands of the day occurred when Mark Bolliger and Nicolas Yunis got all their chips in the middle preflop with pocket aces and pocket kings. When the flop came down Ac-3c-5c the best hand preflop was still in front. However, the 2c on the turn gave Yunis a flush and he only had to avoid a paired board to take down the pot. Instead, the 4c on the river put a straight flush on the board which resulted in an unlikely chopped pot for both players.

Former EPT winner Kevin MacPhee, was one of the many players in the field on Day 1b, but after misreading his hand thinking he was moving all in with two pair, he in fact only had second pair in a hand against Kevin Vandersmissen. It just so happened that he was out kickered in that hand, which now means Berlin will be crowing a new champion.

Some of the notables to be eliminated on Day 1b included Liv Boeree, David Vamplew, Jake Cody, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Luca Pagano, James Keys, and Annette Obrestad amongst others who were sent to the rail.

One of the players who managed to survive until the end of the day included Jan Heitmann. The German pro experienced many swings during the day which saw his stack drop to as low as 4,000 at one point, however, ended up managing to finish with just over the 100,000 chips largely due to winning a big pot right at the end of the day with aces up against jacks.

Other players who saw a healthy boost to their stack during the day’s play included EPT Snowfest winner Vladimir Geshkenbein, ending the day with 180,000 in chips while Roberto Romanello, having just recently won the WPT last week, finished with 152,400 chips.

Now the 202 survivors from Day 1b will combine with the 151 players from Day 1a to commence play on Day 2 at 1200 CEST. Every player will have a chance of winning the first-place prize of €825,000.